My guess is industrial hemp is still up in the air. We are not close to major resort areas but there is a farmers market and lots of gringos at the beach not too far away. Generally we eat what we grow or trade for other stuff we need.
So I am starting to get new stuff ready to plant once the rain starts. Mung beans, quinoa, sorghum, soy beans, purple pigeon peas, mountain watermelon, plus Job’s tears, as well as all the normal staple crops
One of my kids favorite treats are Ice Cream Beans or Guaba. We found these little ones at the river, zI guess they are more of a native species and called guava de la montana. The ones we grow are about three times this size. Kids ate these and we planted seeds on our property.
We love chickens but until moving here had never had any quails. These little guys can live happily in very small areas and produce tons of eggs. My kids love gathering up the colorful eggs as well as caring for these nice little birds.
We love cooking big, thick Costa Rican Tortillas. We eat a lot of rice and beans but also soups, yuca, and lots of bananas and plantains. Yum
It was meant for the momma sloth carrying her baby across the road. Whoops. You are allowed to touch fogones and they don’t ever cross roads. Sorry
Zoey got the double banana. My kids always think they will be lucky if they are the one to get weird looking, mutant fruits and vegetables.
This was a story we will remember. You are not supposed to you them but everybody was worried about my wife but she told them just to wait. Sloths only go on ground once a week so we rarely see them and I had never seen a baby. Perfect timing
When my wife was pregnant she went into labor and I was rushing her to hospital but we had to stop for this momma sloth and her baby. By the time she got across the road there were a bunch of cars stopped trying to keep them safe.. they move slow
The fire starts on left and draws right. If you keep fire on the left the second burner tends to be the hottest but if you place fire a bit deeper that changes. With hardwoods this burns hotter than any comercial cooktop I have used. Varying woods really makes this versatile
We live simply. We generally cook over fire in our outdoor kitchen. This type cooktop is called a fogón and is actually really nice to cook on. Hotter than your average gas stovetop and easy to control temperature. We enjoy cooking this way.
Abbie showing Charlie the “big bam boo” as my kids call it. My kids love walking around and looking at all the plants, seeing how everything is doing and picking a few things while walking around. Besides laundry and cooking taking care of plants is a big part of what we do as a family.
After getting our morning chores done and cooking lunch I usually take the kids to the creek or a river. This is a really pretty hot spring by our house.
It rained last night and this morning we had a ton of birds on the property. Pretty parrots in the morning but then the toucans came in and scared all the little birds off. The you and are beautiful but they are not super nice.
Living in the rainforest is different. We don’t have glass windows so we have a lot of random bugs in the house, they are simply part of life. Beatles, stick bugs, moths, scorpions, ants. After a while you just accept that you share your space with a few bugs.
We love the torch ginger plants. The hummingbirds love them and the flowers can be eaten. We use them in a bunch of recipes
Oliver was pretty proud of his turmeric. He helped me plant this 8 months ago.
So I have about 35 or so pineapples that are almost done. Do you ripen them all the way in the plant or do you pick them a wee bit earlier? I’ll probably be giving out quick a few to neighbors but my kids will sure try to eat them all
It finally rained last night. It is the dry season and it hasn’t rained for two weeks which is weird for the rainforest. I have actually watered a couple things which is weird for me. Not much rain but the plants seem to be happier. I have some baby pigeon peas that needed the water.
Nice harvest. Everything looks delicious
This is my three year old’s pet lettuce plant. She talks to it and takes it for a walk every day to make sure it gets enough sun.
In this part of Costa Rica trees generally grow by simply sticking a cutting in the ground. We have a type of tree known as guachepelin that is generally grown as a fence and for post, it is virtually impervious to bugs or rot. I cut one shorter today and made a greenhouse as well as ten more trees.
Tonight we stopped by the community center for bingo. Bingo is a big deal here and everyone dresses up and it ends in a big dance later but I took my daughter for the bingo part. We had a blast. Good practice for her Spanish and she even won something. Very fun
So we live a pretty simple life. One thing that I find amazing is how my kids love vegetables. Sice they grow them or a friend grew then they see vegetables as really special. Whatever vegetables we have they want put in their food . So different than how I grew up.
We grow thousands of bean plants. You can take a lot of care but my kids just throw beans everywhere and they grow okay too.
That is a good idea. We generally throw in whatever beans and pigeon peas we have around. I wish we had mushrooms here. In Washington I loved to have wood ear and lobster mushrooms around
Sometimes we cook some Texan food. Chili is not common here so we make it once in a while
Sometimes it even rains in the “dry season “
Exactly
So it is the middle of the dry season now. During the wet season we look forward to our four months of dryness… but once it’s here all I wait for is rain. It turns out I like rain.
